United Nations Police

The United Nations Police is a division within the United NationsDepartment of Peacekeeping Operations Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI). It organises police officers representing various countries throughout the world, brought together to assist in the training, organization, stabilization of a destabilized region, or creation of indigenous police forces primarily in war-torn countries. It should not be confused with Interpol, which is a different organization.

Its beginnings, in the form in which it presently exists, can be traced back to the late 1980s, when police officers serving with the force served mostly unarmed and in a monitoring or advising role. By the mid-1990s, with the advent of the problems in Haiti and Bosnia, the force began expanding into a more evolved and proactive role, and usually officers are armed with either a side arm or, on occasion, both a pistol and a rifle, depending on the dangers of the area in which they are assigned. Each war-torn country receiving International Police is referred to officially as a "mission", and each "mission" receives a specific title, such as the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, or the United Nations Transitional Authority for East Timor.

Police brutality

Police brutality is the deliberate use of excessive force, usually physical, carried out during law enforcement activities with the population. This type of behavior also includes verbal attacks and psychological intimidation by a police officer.

History

The word "brutality" has several meanings; the sense used here (savage cruelty) was first used in 1633. The term "police brutality" was in use in the American press as early as 1872, when the Chicago Tribune reported on the beating of a civilian under arrest at the Harrison Street Police Station.

Police brutality in the United States

Police brutality is the abuse of authority by the unwarranted infliction of excessive force by personnel involved in law enforcement while performing their official duties. The term is also applied to abuses by corrections personnel in municipal, state and federal penal facilities including military prisons.

While the term police brutality is usually applied in the context of causing physical harm, it may also involve psychological harm through the use of intimidation tactics beyond the scope of officially sanctioned police procedure. In the past, those who engaged in police brutality may have acted with the implicit approval of the local legal system, e.g. during the Civil Rights era. In the modern era, individuals who engage in police brutality may do so with the tacit approval of their superiors or they may be rogue officers. In either case, they may perpetrate their actions under color of law and, more often than not, engage in a subsequent cover-up of their illegal activity.

Police Brutality

No Authority!I've spoke my mind a thousand timesYou can resist peacefully 'till the end of timeThere's a point where you reach an end of thoughtAnd the thought turns to action, emotion takes control!Authority! No Authority! Fuck Authority!Police Brutality!Politicians are pigs in business suitsTriangle of power, the good are fewIf terrors what you representTERRORS WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET!Authority! No Authority! Fuck Authority!Police Brutality!